Hawaii landlord entry laws
How much notice your landlord owes you before coming in, when they may enter without it, and what Hawaii law lets you do about it.
Notice required
2 days
Except in an emergency or where impracticable, the landlord must give at least two days' notice of intent to enter and shall enter only during reasonable hours. The landlord may not abuse this right of access or use it to harass the tenant. Under § 521-53(c) the landlord has no other right of entry except by court order, apparent abandonment, or as permitted by § 521-70(b).
HRS § 521-53(b)
When they may enter
Reasonable hours only. Hawaii does not fix the clock times the way Washington and Florida do.
When they may enter without notice
Entry without notice is allowed in an emergency, or where giving notice is impracticable. Beyond that, § 521-53(c) closes the list: court order, apparent abandonment, or § 521-70(b).
What you can do about a violation
Where the landlord makes repeated demands for unreasonable entry, or any entry that is unreasonable and not consented to, the tenant may treat it as grounds for terminating the rental agreement, and a circuit court judge may issue an injunction against the landlord and assess a fine. Separately, for an entry made after the tenant refused consent to that specific entry, or made without the tenant's actual consent while they were present and able to give it, the landlord is liable for any theft, casualty, or other damage that entry causes.
Worth knowing: Two limits worth knowing before you decide this is worth pursuing. The fine under § 521-73(c)(3) is capped at $100 and is assessed by the court rather than paid to you, so the real leverage here is termination and the injunction, not the money. And the damages route under § 521-73(b) requires an actual loss — theft, casualty or other damage caused by the entry — so an entry that merely angered you does not by itself produce a damages claim.
HRS § 521-73
Why putting it in writing matters here
Hawaii voids the escape hatch. Under § 521-73(d), every agreement between a landlord and tenant that purports to exempt the landlord from liability under this section is void — the only thing a tenant can give up is consent to a particular entry. So a lease clause saying your landlord may enter whenever they like does not survive contact with the statute, and a written objection is what puts that on the record.
Before you rely on this
Hawaii law depends on facts only you can confirm. Check these first.
Did you consent to the entries you are complaining about?
The § 521-73(c) route turns on entry that was unreasonable AND not consented to, and the § 521-73(b) route on entry after you refused consent or while you were present and unable to be asked. An entry you agreed to is outside both.
What to do right now
Write down the date and time of every entry, and note whether you were asked and what you said. Two days is more notice than most states require, Hawaii's list of permitted entries under § 521-53(c) is closed, and § 521-73 measures the strongest remedy by whether the demands were REPEATED — which is a record, not a memory.
Put it in writing
We'll write a letter citing HRS § 521-53(b), listing each entry with its date and time, and stating what the statute provides. Free to generate and download.
Write my Hawaii entry letterOther Hawaii tenant rights
Landlords who get one of these wrong often get another wrong too.
How this page was checked
- Read from the source. Every deadline, cap and penalty here was taken from Hawaii's published text — the statute, session law or administrative code itself.
- No legal-information websites. Commercial summaries were used only to find a provision, never as authority for it. An automated check fails our build if any state we serve cites a secondary source.
- Locked against drift. The verified figures are pinned by regression tests, so a later edit cannot quietly change a deadline or a penalty.
- Last verified August 21, 2026. Laws change — confirm the current text before relying on it.
General information, not legal advice. We are not a law firm.
Compare all 51 jurisdictions — notice periods range from 12 hours to 72, and thirteen states have no rule at all.